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Certh

I would like to discuss a phonetic problem raised by the well-known Sindarin word _certh_ rune . Its presumed etymology is given in XI/396 : The Sindarin

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, Oct 26, 2003

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I would like to discuss a phonetic problem raised by the well-known Sindarin
word _certh_ "rune". Its presumed etymology is given in XI/396 : "The Sindarin
_certh_ is probably from _*kirtê_ "cutting", a verbal derivative of a type
not used in Quenya". However the e is problematic.

A lowering from i to e can indeed be caused by a following a (earlier â) :
this A-metaphony is attested in Noldorin as well as in the later Sindarin, as
the following examples show:
Primitive _*kirkâ_ (my reconstruction by comparison with the Quenya _kirka_,
from the base KIRIK, V/365) > Noldorin _cerch_ "sickle"
Primitive _ *rimbâ_ > Old Noldorin _rimba_ > Noldorin _rhemb, rhem_
"frequent, numerous" (V/383)
_*ekla-rista_ > Sindarin _Eglarest_ (XI/365)

Hence it is dubious that the e of _certh_ is purely phonetic in origin. It
must come from some analogical process, and I think that a clue is given in
V/381: in the entry PHILIK a Quenya word _filit, pl. filiki_ is listed, and the
Noldorin cognate is "_filig_ pl., analogical singular _fileg_ or _filigod_". The
e of the singular _fileg_ was presumably modelled on the frequent alternation
sg. E / pl. I in final syllable.

I think the same occurred with _certh_, pl. _cirth_: _*kirtê_ "cutting"
regularly produced _cirth_ which was taken as a plural "runes" and given a
analogical singular _certh_ "rune". This is semantically quite plausible: "cutting"
probably first drifted towards "engraved inscription" and then "arrangement of
runes", "runes". This agrees well with the frequent use of collectives as
plurals in Sindarin.

Bertrand Bellet

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Language has both strengthened imagination and been freed by it. Who shall
say whether the free adjective has created images bizarre and beautiful, or the
adjective been freed by strange and beautiful pictures in the mind ?

J. R. R. Tolkien, A Secret Vice

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